


Present Meets Past

by krisrussel



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 17:14:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/689457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krisrussel/pseuds/krisrussel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world really is a small place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Present Meets Past

“Connor, don’t wander off too far,” Elizabeth said as her son ran towards the pond to feed the ducks.   
“No mommy,” the five year old hollered back and she sat down on a bench, adjusting the pram that held her daughter so she could look inside.  
Elizabeth, John, their son, Connor, and their daughter, Catherine, were on Earth for a month. Mainly to introduce Catherine, who was just a couple of months old, to Elizabeth’s mother. They also had some other responsibilities to attend to though and that is why Elizabeth found herself with her two children in a park in Washington on a Thursday afternoon. John was in a meeting with some generals who wanted to be briefed (yet again) on the seemingly never ending threat of the Wraith and the Asurans.  
Tomorrow the children would stay with her mother while John and Elizabeth visited the president. Despite having met more than a few leaders during her years as diplomat, Elizabeth was still slightly anxious about that meeting.  
“That’s a beautiful baby.”  
Elizabeth smiled at the woman who sat down next to her. “Thank you. Do you have any children?”  
The woman shook her head. “No and I don’t think I ever will. My career is too important to me.”  
“That’s what I thought too. But my husband convinced me otherwise and I haven’t regretted it for a single second.”  
The woman smiled and extended her hand. “I’m Nancy Davidson.”  
Elizabeth took the hand and shook it. “Elizabeth Weir Sheppard. My youngest who’s fast asleep right now is Catherine and our oldest who’s feeding the ducks over there is called Connor.”  
Nancy looked funny for a moment and Elizabeth raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”  
“Nothing, it’s just a strange coincidence. My ex-husband is called Sheppard and before we split up, he always told me that if he ever had a girl, he would name her Catherine after his mom.”  
Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to look strangely. John had named their daughter after his mom.  
“Would your ex be an air force pilot?”  
“Lieutenant John Sheppard.” Nancy said and Elizabeth raised her eyebrow again.  
“He’s a Colonel now.” Elizabeth said and Nancy looked surprised.  
“The world can’t be that small.”  
Elizabeth reached in her purse and pulled out her wallet. Opening it, she showed the picture inside to Nancy. It was of John in dress uniform and her in a white gown on the day they had gotten married almost six years ago.  
Nancy gaped. “That’s John.”  
Elizabeth gave her a tiny smile. “Sometimes the world can be ridiculously small.”  
“How is he?” Nancy asked. “Last time I saw him was at his father’s funeral.”  
Elizabeth nodded. “John told me about that. I was at the end of my pregnancy back then and my doctor didn’t allow me to travel.”  
“He mentioned he was married again, but I never asked more about it. Last time I saw him before that was on the day we got the news that we were officially divorced. I didn’t feel like I had any right to mingle in his current life.”  
“I’m sure he won’t mind if we talk.” Elizabeth said with a wink.  
“So, does he still fly helicopters and do covert ops?”  
“He still flies, yes.” She couldn’t exactly tell Nancy that the crafts he was flying were jumpers. “And he still does covert ops regularly.”  
“I can’t believe he made it to Colonel… especially with that black mark he got in Afghanistan.”  
“He proved several times over that he deserves that rank.”  
Nancy looked surprised. “It almost sounds like you work together.”  
“We do, actually.” Elizabeth smiled. “We’re both posted to a base outside of the US.”  
“So, you’re in the military too?”  
Elizabeth laughed softly. “No, not at all. It’s a mainly civilian research operation which I lead. John’s the commander of the military contingent assigned to the base.”  
Now Nancy looked amused. “So, you’re his boss.”  
“Technically yes. But we always regarded each other as equals. That’s probably why our superiors never made a big problem of our relationship and eventually our marriage.”  
“And the kids stay with you on the base?”  
Elizabeth nodded. “It turned more into a colony really… we have plenty of families with their children living there and the numbers keep on growing.”  
“Haven’t heard of a lot of civilian bases outside of the US like that…” Nancy said.  
“We're a... special case.” Elizabeth smiled. “Can’t tell you more…”  
“It’s classified.” Nancy gave her a small grin. “I heard that more than enough when I was married to John.”  
“I can imagine secrets like that are strenuous for a marriage.” Elizabeth sympathized and Nancy nodded.  
At that moment Elizabeth’s phone rang, picking it up, Nancy could already tell it was John by the way she smiled. Even though they had apparently been married for close to six years, Elizabeth still seemed to be deeply in love with John.  
“Hey, sweetie, is the meeting over already?... yes… ok… well, we’re all in the park and Connor is fascinated by the ducks again.”  
Nancy wondered if her features had ever radiated love when she was simply talking on the phone with John. She remembered her time with John being a lot of fun. The messy hair made him look very attractive and she had lusted for him from the first minute she had met him. He hadn’t showed any real interest in her for anything beyond friendship but she had pursued and seduced him so relentlessly that he had caved in eventually.  
They married too young , too fast and it was based purely on sex.  
It was doomed to fail before it had even begun.  
John had never been much of a seducer and she wondered if Elizabeth had made the first move... she didn’t seem like the woman to do that though.  
When Elizabeth closed her phone and put it away again, she turned back to Nancy.  
“John will be here in a couple of minutes. His meeting ran shorter than he expected.”  
Nancy nodded. “I wonder what his face will look like when he sees us sitting together.”  
The two women looked at each other and laughed.  
“Can I ask you something personal?”  
Elizabeth nodded. “Depends how personal.”  
“I was just wondering… I had to go after John to seduce him… Did you have to go after him?”  
Elizabeth softly smiled, remembering their years working together so closely before finally admitting to their feelings.  
“No, he took the first step… although, there wasn’t much of a step to take. We’d been working closely together for over 3 years and we knew we cared a whole lot more about each other than colleagues or friends should. We held back on acting on our feelings though. Then a fearless enemy attacked us and I had such a close brush with death, that John finally realized we should stop wasting time. Everything went so fast after that. From our first kiss to our marriage barely took six months and exactly nine months after our marriage Connor was born.”  
Nancy slightly smiled. “That is fast.”  
“I was afraid we were doomed for failure by going so fast, but I’ve never been happier in my life and I wouldn’t change a single thing.”  
“Not even getting together faster?” Nancy asked surprised.  
Elizabeth shook her head. “No. The time we spend as friends gave us the chance to really get to know each other. I think that’s why we last even though we completely disagree on some things.”  
“I’m happy for you… and for John. He deserves real happiness.”  
“Daddyyyyyyy!!” Both turned to see Connor run towards the approaching man.  
John lifted his son in his arms and spun him around, giving him a cuddle and keeping him in his arms.  
“Hey, Prince. You had fun with the ducks?”  
“I gave them bread.” Connor grinned the exact same grin as his father who ruffled the boy’s hair.  
Nancy’s heart skipped a beat. John looked more attractive than ever before. His hair was slightly longer than last time, but it was still as messy. He had loosened the buttons of his dress uniform jacket and his tie hung loosely around his neck. He looked a tad scruffy, but that just made him look hotter.  
He also looked so different than on his father’s funeral. He looked really truly happy now.  
Damn… why had she ever let him go?  
“Nancy?” John’s surprise was obvious by his tone of voice and the look on his face.  
The woman in question slightly smiled. “Hi, John. Haven’t seen you in a long while.”  
He looked uncomfortable for a minute, but the smile on Elizabeth’s face reassured him somehow.  
“Yeah… been busy. So euhm… I guess you met my wife.”  
“We had a pretty *interesting* conversation.” Elizabeth said and John felt incredibly uncomfortable again.  
The sight made the two women grin which made John squirm.  
“So you just happened to bump into each other here?”  
“It’s a small world apparently.” Elizabeth pointed out.  
“Ridiculously small.” Nancy added.  
It made John squirm again. “Right… Euhm… Liz, honey, I called your mom on my way here to let her know we’d be there sooner then planned, so we should get going.”  
Elizabeth stood up from the bench and turned to Nancy. “Next time I’m in the country, we should have a drink together.”  
Nancy smiled and shook Elizabeth’s hand. “We should definitely do that.”  
Elizabeth then turned to John. “Let’s go then.”  
He gave Elizabeth a smile and the look on his face took Nancy’s breath away. He had never looked at her like that. It was the look of a man who was truly happy and who was deeply in love.  
A pang of jealousy shot through her, but she deftly shoved it away.  
“Bye, John.”  
He looked at her with a small smile. “Bye, Nancy.”  
Elizabeth started pushing the pram along the path. John put Connor on the ground and took his hand, while he placed his other hand gently on the small of Elizabeth’s back.  
Nancy watched them walk away until they rounded the corner and were gone from her view.  
Damn… Why had she ever let him go?

The End


End file.
